Access the OCR-parsed version of the legal notice here: text file.
After YouTube blocked the 34-minute video essay on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and business conglomerate Gautam Adani, created by Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia, Mumbai Police issued a legal notice to X, asking the platform to take action against posts about the video essay.
The legal notice does not refer to either Modi or Adani. Instead, it states that the 24 posts listed in the notice contain “false, misleading, and disparaging statements” concerning a “well-known company.”
Mumbai Police’s Cyber Police Station in the West Region, under the Crime Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), issued the notice to X (formerly Twitter) under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. Inspector of Police Sandeep Patil issued the notice on October 18, 2026, addressing it to X’s offices in both San Francisco and Mumbai.
What were the legal grounds for the notice? The notice states that the impugned tweets are “being publicly circulated through different X handles without any apparent factual or lawful basis, thereby causing serious and continuing harm to the company’s reputation, goodwill, and public image.”
The notice also cites violations of “X rules and BNS section 352, 356,” provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) dealing with criminal defamation. It asks X to “remove or disable access to the said content in accordance with applicable law and X’s policies.”
The 24 posts listed in the notice include posts attributed to independent journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra, and the Aam Aadmi Party’s AAP Uttar Pradesh account.
“I regret to inform the good people of India that their fundamental right to free speech is being curtailed by the government. This government is no longer of the people, by the people, or for the people.” – Sabeer Bhatia
However, Bhatia also clarified that he had voluntarily taken down the so-called “highly objectionable tweets.”
A few posts listed in the legal notice remain accessible: Despite Mumbai Police’s takedown notice, several of the impugned tweets remained publicly accessible on X at the time of writing. Two examples are shown below.
Both URLs were explicitly listed in Mumbai Police’s notice dated October 18, 2026. It is unclear whether X has complied with the takedown notice, as some of the posts remain accessible at the time of writing.
The YouTube video remains blocked in India, with no specific reason given: Bhatia’s video essay, “How Modi and Adani Stole India | The Friendship Files”, uploaded on October 9, 2026, remains blocked in India. YouTube’s notice states only that the platform had “received a legal complaint from a government entity” and that, “after review,” the video had been blocked in India.
The notice does not identify the government entity that filed the complaint, the legal provision invoked, or the specific content objected to.
After YouTube initially blocked the video, Bhatia shared copies on Google Drive and iCloud. Several posts circulating the video, including Moitra’s post, remain accessible in India.
They blocked Sabeer’s video. But watch it here to see how Adani & Modi stole India. pic.twitter.com/tEPkYNBl9c
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 11, 2026
Also Read:
- YouTube blocks video essay on Modi and Adani in India after government complaint
- MIB Instructs News Publishers To Remove Defamatory Content About Adani Group
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